Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song
December 18, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 191 Something/Anything?

som2I Saw The Light was the first song I heard and I remember it was at one of those new-fangled Jeans Stores that were cropping up in Hamilton when I was in high school. I was there with my girlfriend and we were having a crafty pash in a dressing booth and the song came over the radio.

There had been stories about him I’d read in the NME and I knew he played all the instruments himself and was a kind of boy-wonder and instead of buying the jeans I went over the road to the record shop and purchased Something/Anything? 

The music wasn’t what I expected at all and it covered a lot of territory – gentle and complex pure pop songs to dark sluggish rockers like Went to the Mirror, Little Red Lights or Black Maria. He went off in other less appealing tangents too like Gilbert and Sullivan moments but I was smitten with his melodies and production and I tried to imagine what it would be like to create such a beast of a double album playing and singing everything. Singing multi-part harmonies with yourself and having a blast alone in the studio.

There are prog moments when he lets fly on synthesizers but they are good-natured and clever, taking the album to uncharted Sargent Pepper-style waters – the odd link-ups between tracks.something_big_770_437_90_s

Just over half way through the record Couldn’t I Just Tell You comes powering into things and you realise what a great rock clown he is at heart followed by Torch Song – one of the saddest and greatest songs of that ilk ever written

Side four was a little different in that he used a band and wove an unconvincing narrative through those songs but Hello It’s Me and Dust in the Wind are two absolute classics.som5

No one around me seemed to get him and that was part of the attraction. My hard rock friends thought him too pop with his teen angst love songs but I was a teenager prone to falling in love and could totally identify. My girlfriends didn’t like him much either so he became a kind of personal obsession.

I could tell, even with my limited self-taught and rudimentary song-writing aspirations, that the way he shaped a song, in whatever style he was writing in, was unique, consumate and ground-breaking. And his lyrics were human – he wasn’t writing about wizards in the same way as Zep, Sabb or Heep were. He wasn’t trying to be Dylan either. He was just laying out stories and opinions that seemed pretty clear.

In some ways the “Something/Anything?”  album is a giant sketch pad with seven or so perfect Todd songs that just get better with age. It rambles on and makes its creator’s mind an open book.

Maybe it’s my age but when I was a teenager in H-Town it meant enough to me to make me want to write songs in a certain way and with a certain dignity.

I was going to say about my whole life as a Todd Rundgren fan this week but something got in the way…
som3todd rundgren abck430

The Ghost of Electricity – War Stories by Jon McLeary is a new initiative at Off The Tracks, a series of stories and reflections from painter, writer and musician Jon McLeary

To read any of the first 190 in the series click here

Posted in Blog, Miscellany and tagged with #191, Anything, Art, Black Maria, Couldn't I Just Tell You, double-album, Dust In The Wind, Ghost, Ghost Stories, Guest Blog, Guest Post, Hamilton, Hello It's Me, I Saw The Light, Jon Mcleary, Little Red Lights, Music, Painting, Rundgren, Something, Something/Anything, Songwriting, Spines, The Ghost of Electricity, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary, The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 191 Something/Anything?, The Spines, Todd, Todd Rundgren, Torch Song, War Stories, War Stories # 191, War Stories by Jon McLeary, Wellington, Went To the Mirror, Writing. RSS 2.0 feed.
« V/A: Heed The Call! (Whakarono, Nga Tamariki)
Judd Apatow: The Return »

Popular

  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • Tea With Terrorists: Theatre
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham
  • Sweetman Podcast: Episode 73 – Janna Lapidus Leblanc
  • A Very Benign And In-Character Midlife Crisis: I’m Back Buying CDs
  • Bring Concert Films Back To the Big Screen
  • Neil Peart Was The World’s Most Overrated Drummer
  • Poem: Repeat

Archives

Tags

Album Review Auckland Blog Book Book Review Chat Compilation DJ Drums DVD DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Poetry Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spotify Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl Want more? Check out my Substack You can also support Off The Tracks via PressPatron Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2022 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press